JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS AND OTHER – INDIA (33): (ODISHA), nov 2016

JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS AND OTHER – INDIA (33): (ODISHA)
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ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseaseshttp://www.isid.org

Japanese encephalitis toll [of fatalities] touches 114 in 69 days
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The authorities in Malkangiri district [Odisha state] are finding it difficult to arrest the outbreak of Japanese encephalitis (JE) and the mystery disease, which the administration is suspecting to be acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), even as droves of children are being rushed to the hospitals and wails of anguish from relatives of victims fill the district headquarters hospital every day.

Two separate expert teams have investigated the mysterious deaths, ministers, secretaries of various departments and specialist doctors have made numerous visits to the tribal-dominated district in the past few weeks but all their promises and attempts have failed in controlling the killer disease.

With 4 deaths on Wednesday [16 Nov 2016], the unofficial toll has risen to 114 in 69 days. Officials have put the JE related toll at 31 and the non-JE [AES] deaths at 67. The deceased died while undergoing treatment at the district headquarters hospital, Malkangiri.

Expressing their helplessness, a senior official of the district said, “We are fighting the disease in a mission mode. All resources at our disposal have been mobilised, experts, technicians, ambulances from outside the district have been pressed to service.”

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